‌‌‌‌‌Texas’ Republican SOS Does Lt. Guv’s Supporters A Solid

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Hello readers!

There’s been plenty of news out of Texas in recent weeks, but today I’d like to focus in on a Texas Tribune story that I think highlights a double standard for voters in the state — depending on their political preferences. 
 

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Alright, let’s dig in.

Texas Republicans Appear To Flex Voting Rules For Their Voters

There’s a lot to say about what’s going on in TEXAS right now, particularly about the thousands of voters whose mail-in ballots have been rejected due to Republicans’ onerous new ID rules. 
 

But I think another story details the double standards in the state.

The Texas Tribune reported Thursday on a change to the Republican secretary of state’s website: Last month, it included a warning that all voters sending applications for mail-in ballots to its office, rather than to county clerks' offices, “will be rejected.” That language is now gone. 
 

Why?

Seemingly because Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) encouraged his supporters to send mail-in ballot applications to the office in a campaign mailer complete with the official seal of his office.

…Why? Because “many Republican voters are rightly suspicious of Blue County election officials,” the campaign said.

This adds an unnecessary extra step to the process, a troubling prospect so close to primary day. (The secretary of state’s office is simply forwarding requests it receives to county offices “as a courtesy to help the voter,” a spokesperson for the office said.)

It also shows that, when Republican voters need a favor, Republican officials in Texas are apparently willing to be flexible. Would they extend the same favor to Democrats? 

‌SCOTUS Sides With Alabama Map That Lower Court Said Was Discriminatory

Two weeks ago, the U.S. The Supreme Court halted a lower court’s order that ALABAMA redraw its congressional maps. The lower court panel (including two Trump-appointed judges) had found that the maps disenfranchised Black voters.

In halting the order, the Supreme Court majority, composed of the conservatives sans John Chief Justice John Roberts, did not explain itself. Justice Elena Kagan did offer a blistering dissent, which Justice Kavanaugh attempted to rebut with a concurrence that amounted to a lengthy whine about the whole ordeal. 
 

“Late judicial tinkering with election laws can lead to disruption and to unanticipated and unfair consequences for candidates, political parties, and voters, among others,” Kavanaugh wrote, even though there are still weeks to go before the state begins voting in its congressional primary.

The consequences of the decision are substantial: For one thing, a map that arguably discriminates against Black voters — by forming just one majority-Black district out of seven in the state, even though Black voters make up 27% of the state — will remain in effect for the 2022 primary election.

What’s more, as University of Richmond School of Law professor Henry L. Chambers Jr. wrote recently, “In allowing the state to use a voting map adopted in late 2021 that a court has ruled unlawful soon after passage, the Supreme Court is sending a signal to other states regarding the lack of review available regarding problematic maps they may draw.”

Around The States

Thousands of mail-in ballots — not just ballot applications — have been rejected in TEXAS due to Republicans’ onerous new ID requirements. 
 

…and the IOWA legislature is considering copying the Lone Star State. 
 

Also in Texas: Judges halted, and then reinstated, a new law prohibiting election officials from encouraging mail-in voting.
 

Despite a court order, OHIO’s Republican-run redistricting commission has not come up with new, legal state legislative maps. 
 

Fair redistricting groups have not challenged proposed maps from the Republican-dominated FLORIDA legislature — but that doesn’t mean the maps will get past the veto pen of Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), who wants more partisan districts.
 

Democrats and the ACLU have filed suit against a KANSAS redistricting map, already approved by the legislature over Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto, that would shrink the district of the state’s only congressional Democrat. 

Native American tribes in NORTH DAKOTA have sued over a “sickening” gerrymander.

Congressional reforms to the ELECTORAL COUNT ACT could take a while.

The Latest In Election Sabotage

Legislative Republicans and the partisan “investigator” examining the 2020 presidential election results in WISCONSIN want to arrest even more public officials for refusing to agree to private interviews.
 

A Republican on the state's Election Committee thinks the last presidential election was “rigged” — but also “legal”? 

Handwriting analysis in FLORIDA is raising some serious questions about a wave of supposed party affiliation changes, from Democrat to Republican, that voters say were done against their will. 
 

Florida Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), who leads the GOP’s Senate campaign committee, released a document declaring that “Today’s Democrat Party is trying to rig elections and pack the courts because they have given up on Democracy,” before listing a series of Republican proposals to restrict voting rights. 
 

MLive has some alarming accounts of petition signature-gatherers misleading MICHIGAN voters about the intent of an initiative to restrict voting rights. 

The COLORADO secretary of state has sued a county clerk, seeking more information about his copying of the hard drives from voting equipment (with the help of some locally prominent Big Liars). The copied data was shared with an as-yet unidentified “private attorney.” 

WaPo: GOP lawmakers are pushing high-tech ‘fraud-proof’ ballots. A Texas company could be the only supplier.

Bolts Mag: “Stop the Steal” Activists Target a Texas Judge

NBC News: New mail voter ID rules sow confusion in Texas with thousands of ballots at risk of rejection

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